Fascism and regionalism in interwar Alsace

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between regionalism and fascism in interwar Alsace. Although fascism is usually characterized as hypernationalist, the relationship between regionalism and fascism in Alsace suggests something more complex. On the one hand, French and German fascist movements sought local legitimacy by co-opting issues of regional identity. Hypernationalism would have fallen on deaf ears. On the other hand, the Alsatian Bauernbund, a regionally based fascist movement, adapted fascist principles to strictly regional aims. The goal of fascism, in this case, was not necessarily national. A better way to understand the range of fascist interaction with regional identity is to see fascism as aggressively espousing the politics of spatial identity in a political environment that generally downplayed ethnic, regional or national sensitivities. Fascism offered a hierarchy of identity or belonging that embraced the socially powerful relationships of family, region and nation.

Keywords:

• fascism
• regionalism
• Alsace
• French history
• nationalism

Notes

1. Paul Levy (1929) argues that with a little more time, Alsace would have become entirely German-speaking. Joseph Rossé (1938, vol. 4, p. 199, Table 95) states that in 1926 940,944 Alsatians spoke German or Alsatian dialect at home and only 192,842 used French.

2. Archives Nationales (AN), F7, 13210, Mulhouse, 15 April 1926, Commissaire, chef de la Surété a M.le Commissaire Central in Mulhouse; AN, F7, 13210, Colmar, 17 July 1926, Report.

3. Der Francisme u. die ElsaB-Lothringische Frage, Le Franciste, November 1935, German language edition.

4. Wir wollen, Le Franciste, April 1936, German language edition, lists these issues as ‘special for Alsace-Lorraine’.

5. Autonomie, Nein! Regionalismus, Ja!, Le Franciste, August 1935.

6. AN, F7, 13398, no date, ‘Roos et le mouvement séparatiste’, by Bauer, quoting an article in Die Volksstimme dated 27 July 1927.

7. Geld von Ausland, Volkswille, 18 May 1929.

8. Bas-Rhin, AL 8, 1085, Presse, Organisation de la Presse, Liste des Principaux Correspondants et Rédacteurs, à Paris, de la Presse Alsacienne et Lorraine.

9. Volk, 6 January 1936.

10. These were the Action Française, the Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français, the Francistes, the Jungmannschaft, the Landespartei and the Alsatian Arbeiter- und Bauernpartei.

11. Volk, 1 March 1936.

12. AN, F7, 13625, Folder: Les congrès agricoles, 1901–1932, Colmar, 22 January 1930, Commissaire spécial de Colmar à M. Ie Préfet du Haut-Rhin.

13. Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archeologie d'Alsace, Nouveau Dictionnaire de Biographie Alsacienne, vol. 1 (Strasbourg, 1982–), p. 24.

14. Action Francaise, 7 June 1938.

15. Bas-Rhin, AL 98, 1148, May–June 1938, citing: Un campagne contre l'Alsace nationale?, Action Française, 20 June 1938.

16. Bas-Rhin, AL 98, 1148, May–June 1938, citing La Dépeche de Strasbourg, 5 June 1938, and Der Republikaner, 8 June 1938; Une campagne contre l'Alsace nationale?, L'Action Française, 20 June 1938.

17. Bas-Rhin, AL 98, 1122, 19 September 1935, quoting the ELZ, 18 September 1935.

18. EIsäßisches Bauernblatt, 27 May 1933.